St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-04
Higher. slower.
MATERNITY.


OF all those most eminent in science
to-day there is no one who makes more
practical use of his scientific knowledge
than Dr.. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, the
eminent Nav York surgeon and phySic-
ian and the eX-Surgeon general of the
United States army. In his letter to the
SUNDAY GLOBE, which appears in an
other column of this mornings issue,
DIR. HAMMOND discusses a subject of
vital importar ce to the worlds progress
and at the same time one of special and
peculiar interest to each family in the
world. The original curse pronounced
upon our first mother in the Garden of
Eden, when she was told that her sor-
rows would be multiplied because of
her diSObedience, was afterwards
changed into blessing at the diSem-
barkation from the ark, when GOD said
to Noah and his family, ''Be fruitful
and multiply, and repleniSh the
earth. DR.. HAMMOND endeavorS to show
that the dying out of the maternal in
Stinct in these modern days is due to the
educational follies of the age. We are
getting entirely too aesthetic for the pur-
poses of our creation. That is the logic
of DR.. HAMMoND's discourse.
And yet it is a debatable question
whether all the argument is on the HAM
MoND side of the case. 1t has been the
custom of man, ever since the days of
ADAM, whenever there has been any
thing to find fault with, to throw the
whole blame on the woman. 1t is a la
mentable truth that the female instinct
for dress and display, and for having a
good easy time generally. is being de
veloped to a dangerous extent by the ex-
cessively refined educational methods of
the age. The tendency is to degenerate
women into butterflies, with the posi-
bility that the ultimate result of this
backward evolutionary process will be
to make caterpillars of them.
And yet with this dangerous tendency
of the times glaring full in their faces,
there are plenty of people who will be
disposed to take the woman's part in
this controversy. They will argue their
side of the case I'D this way;
Collaborating was a curse originally.
The fact that it was made blessing in
NoAH'S time was because of its ex-
pediency. There was great big world
here and only eight people in it. The
population was out of all proportion to
the area. There had to be some special
lnducement to invite immigration.
The conditions are not the same now
that existed in NoAH's time. There is
not the same demand for population. In
fact, the earth is Overcrowded, and the
great problem of the age is to know
what to do with our surplus humanity.
Viewed from purely economic stand
point the world would be better off if
there were no more children born into
it until some of the old stock of human
ity is worked off.
But there is moral side to the CUES
ton Independent of its economic feat
ures. Disciples of the HAMMOND
school have the law and the prophets at
their back. The pains of maternity
were included in the primal curse and
entailed upon woman as punishment
for our elder mothers sin. Whether a
curse or blessing now, it is a divine
command, and must not be disregarded.
There is where the HAMMoNDTTEs
clinch their argument.
The opposition, however, comes back
with this argument: The Devil trieked
the woman into the scrape. If at last
she is educated up to point to be smart
enough to beat the Devil at his own
game, then she is entitled to the benefit
of her shrewdness.
Thus the arguments ON both sides
might be multiplied until the earth was
repleniShed with arguments. But it is
altogether unnecessary to pursue a
further discussion of the subject. As
long as the world lasts it will be filled
with true, noble women. possessed of all
the instincts of womanhood, and as long
as the ages roll the name of mother will
continue to be the most sacred earthly
uame pronounced by human tongues.